Han and Tang female authors

[reitia]

Hello again,

 

I'd like to know if, between the Han and Tang dynasties, there was a flourishing of literature written by females. Not just poetry, but also court diaries, stories, travel descriptions and the like, just as in Heian Japan.

 

There were Chinese Emperors who composed scholarly literature, verse and prose, in the classical period. What about the Empresses, Princesses and noblewomen of that period?

 

Please send info about the role of literary women in ancient and early Medieval China. Thank you.

[Geiko]

Hi, reitia! I know very little about Chinese literature, but a good example of female Chinese writer and historian could be Ban Zhao. Some days ago I bought Jade Mirror: Women Poets of China, which might also interest you, but I haven't read it yet, so I can't comment on it. I found this article about Ban Zhao, which mentions supplementary reading material  (Liu, Hsiang, The Position of Woman in Early China: According to the Lieh Nü Chuan "The Biographies of Chinese Women" seems interesting). And finally there's this book, Women Writers of Traditional China: An Anthology of Poetry and Criticism.

[Lu]

You could also try The Red Brush by Wilt Idema, although this book features female authors from all dynasties up to Qiu Jin, not just women from Han and Tang.

[Luxi]

Not an answer to your question, Reitia, but on a tangential note, these pages may be of interest:

 

http://www.virginia.edu/topnews/01_28_2004/chinese_history.html

 

http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/xwomen/

 

The site includes a bilingual version of "Biographies of of Exemplary Women" and other core texts:

 

http://www2.iath.virginia.edu:8080/exist/cocoon/xwomen/texts/list

[reitia]

Dear Geiko, Lu, and Luxi,

 

Thanks for the information you've sent to me. I appreciate it very much.

 

Wish I could speak and read Chinese! It's such a sweet language. I wonder, was the classical Chinese language very different from the modern? I have read that the pronunciation was different in certain aspects...

[Lu]

As with all languages, the pronunciation of Chinese has changed quite a bit over the centuries. In addition, the written language was different. The poems you're looking for would have been written in classical Chinese. For more information on classical Chinese you can just google. But feel free to return and start a new topic if you have questions after that!